Scripture Verse

If anyone says to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Mark 11:23

Introduction

portrait
Henry Carey
1687–1743

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems 1749, num­ber 186.

Music: Car­ey’s Sur­rey Hen­ry Car­ey, 1723. Har­mo­ny from The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Un­i­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 491 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley
1707–1788

Lyrics

Give me the faith which can remove
And sink the mountain to a plain;
Give me the childlike praying love,
Which longs to build Thy house again;
Thy love, let it my heart overpower,
And all my simple soul devour.

I want an even strong desire,
I want a calmly fervent zeal,
To save poor souls out of the fire,
To snatch them from the verge of hell,
And turn them to a pardoning God,
And quench the brands in Jesus’ blood.

I would the precious time redeem,
And longer live for this alone,
To spend, and to be spent for them
Who have not yet my Savior known;
Fully on these my mission prove,
And only breathe, to breathe Thy love.

My talents, gifts, and graces, Lord,
Into Thy blessed hands receive;
And let me live to preach Thy Word,
And let me to Thy glory live;
My every sacred moment spend
In publishing the sinner’s friend.

Enlarge, inflame, and fill my heart
With boundless charity divine,
So shall I all my strength exert,
And love them with a zeal like Thine,
And lead them to Thy open side,
The sheep for whom the Shepherd died.

Wesley’s original two stanzas:

O that I was as heretofore
When first sent forth in Jesus’ name.
I rushed thro’ every open door,
And cried to all, Behold the Lamb!
Seized the poor trembling slaves of sin,
And forced the outcasts to come in.

The God who kills, and makes alive,
To me the quickening power impart,
Thy grace restore, Thy work revive,
Retouch my lips, renew my heart,
Forth with a fresh commission send,
And all Thy servant’s steps attend.